Rick Perry on Technology

Republican Governor (TX)

Stand up cyber-command against China's cyber-crime

Q: China is using cyber-attacks to steal billions of dollars of intellectual property. Are we engaged in financial warfare with China?

Perry: This whole issue of allowing cyber security to go on, we need to use all of our resources--the private sector
working along with our government. To really stand up the cyber command in 2010 was a good start on that. But fighting this cyber war, I would suggest, is one of the great issues that will face the next President.

Romney: To continue to have free and
open access to the thing they want so badly, our markets, they have to play by the rules. They can't hack into our computer systems and steal from our government. They can't steal from corporations. They can't take patents and designs, intellectual
property, and duplicate them and counterfeit them and sell them around the world. And they also can't manipulate their currency in such a way as to make their prices well below what they otherwise would be.

Put technology into place for long-distance learning

Q: Do you agree with Congressman Paul that we should kill the federal student loan program?

PERRY: I've called for a $10,000 graduate program --

Q: But would you kill the federal student loan program?

PERRY: I don't think the federal government
should be in the business of paying for programs and building up huge debt out there.

Q: So get rid of it?

PERRY:-The governors who appoint the trustees, they [could] step in and basically say, listen, you are going to have graduation rates that are
moving upwards, you're going to have tuition that is moving down. You have to have control over those boards of regents, of that's how you do that, or the legislature has to have control. But the bottom line is, we have to put powerful economic forces
into place. And one of those is using our technology to be able to let our kids have the opportunity to get an education through long distance learning, for instance.

Texas Enterprise Fund: $14B invested in emerging technology

Q: Taxpayers stand to lose half a billion dollars in the collapse of Solyndra, a solar energy firm that was a centerpiece of the Obama green jobs initiative.

A: I don't think the federal government should be involved in that type of investment, period.
If states want to choose to do that, I think that's fine for states to do that.

Q: You have in Texas done that with the emerging technology fund. But your own state auditor said earlier this year that that fund is neither accountable nor transparent.
And like Solyndra, some of the emerging technology fund investments have gone bust.

A: Well, first off, the Texas legislature has full oversight of that committee. Every two years the Texas legislature looks at it, and I can promise you the 54,600
jobs that have been created and the $14 billion-plus worth of investment that has come out of the Enterprise Fund in the state of Texas, those people that have jobs today in the state of Texas, they are absolutely happy that we've got a program like that

Trans-Texas corridor: 4000 miles of highway & utilities

One of the biggest objections Tea Party groups have with Perry is his support for the Trans-Texas Corridor--a plan that would have created more than
4,000 miles of superhighways, rails and utility lines, cost more than $100 billion and required the taking of private property through eminent domain. The proposal was eliminated by the state Legislature this year.

Source: Alan Gomez in USA TODAY, "Tea Party"
, Aug 8, 2011

$40M for 5,500 students in Texas Technology Grants

I am advocating that we set aside $40 million for a new Texas Technology Grant program. Texas produces 5,500 graduates a year in electrical engineering, engineering technology and computer science while our economy produces
11,000 annual job openings in those fields. Let's invest in technology scholarships so that Texans are on the forefront of technology innovation, whether it is here at home, or in outer space.

Source: Texas 2007 State of the State address
, Feb 6, 2007

Level playing field for Main Street vs. Internet sales tax.

Perry adopted a letter to Congress from 44 Governors:

The nation’s governors have a strong and unified message to Congress: deal fairly with Main Street retailers, consumers, and local governments. In a letter sent to all members of Congress late Friday, 44 governors said:

If you care about a level playing field for Main Street retail businesses and local control of states, local governments, and schools, extend the moratorium on taxing Internet access ONLY with authorization for the states to streamline and simplify the existing sales tax system. To do otherwise perpetuates a fundamental inequity and ignores a growing problem.

The current moratorium on Internet access taxes, like those consumers pay to Internet service providers, and multiple and discriminatory taxes is scheduled to expire in October. The moratorium does not apply to sales taxes.

Currently, sales and use taxes are owed on all online transactions, but states are prohibited from requiring “remote sellers” to collect and remit those levies.
A 1992 US Supreme Court decision said states can only require sellers that have a physical presence in the same state as the consumer to collect so-called use taxes. In instances when a seller does not have a physical presence, consumers are required to calculate and remit the taxes owed to their home states at the end of the year. The problem is most people are unaware that they’re supposed to pay, and states lack an effective enforcement mechanism. Online and catalog sellers, thereby, have a significant price advantage over Main Street businesses that must collect a sales tax on all transactions.

The loophole creates serious budget problems for schools, states, and local governments. A study estimated that states could lose as much as $14 billion by 2004 if they are unable to collect existing taxes on Web-based sales. Nearly half of state revenues come from sales taxes.

Permanent R&D tax incentive & more R&D funding.

Whereas, the federal government’s investment in research and development (R&D) has dropped from 70% of total, national R&D at the height of the “cold war” to merely 27% in 1999; and,

Whereas, federal R&D spending has dropped from 1.5% of the Gross National Product (GDP) in 1987 to only 0.6% today; and,

Whereas, industry-sponsored R&D has off-set this decline by merely growing from 1.5% of GDP in 1987 to 1.6% today; and,

Whereas, federal leadership in technology transfer is of critical importance to the development and commercialization of established intellectual property; and,

Whereas, broadband, high-speed Internet technology is an essential asset to support the New Economy and foster a climate to aid R&D efforts; and,

Whereas, the advancement of digital government can foster supportive services important to research and development including cataloging of labor, statistics and venture capital,
and further, can enhance citizen access and coordination of government information and services; now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Southern Governors’ Association urges Congress and the Administration to:

Substantially increase all areas of research and development funding, and enact a permanent tax incentive for R&D and a tax election to exchange research-related benefits for a refundable tax credit;

Pass legislation to bolster federal technology transfer efforts, ensuring that a sense of urgency exists in tech transfer officers of government agencies;

Support legislation and regulations that will speed the deployment of broadband, high speed Internet networking throughout the nation; and,

Establish a federal chief information office within the Office of Management and Budget.